iOS 7 released today: New features, changes, and exploring the new interface

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Later today, September 18, Apple will release iOS 7 — the biggest update to iOS since the first iPhone launched way back in 2007. In some ways, iOS 7 merely brings Apple’s mobile OS up to feature parity with Android and Windows Phone — but in other areas, iOS 7 leaps ahead of the competition. If you want to find out more about iOS 7’s new features and changes, read on. If reading isn’t your thing and you own an iPhone or iPad, go ahead and download and install iOS 7 today, ahead of the official release.

iOS 7’s radically different new look

After six years of looking exactly the same, iOS 7 finally delivers a massive visual overhaul that will make your iPhone or iPad actually look modern. In general, iOS 7 is flatter, more colorful, and lacks skeuomorphism (interface elements that resemble real-world objects/materials, such as wood paneling or a leather ledger). Despite the new look, though, iOS 7 still feels very familiar; everything’s still where you expect it to be. It just looks fresher. We’ve been using various beta versions of iOS 7 for a few months, and while there’s a bit of an adjustment period, Apple has somehow ensured that almost everything is surprisingly familiar.

In-line with newer versions of Android and Windows Phone, iOS 7 also now makes much more significant use of typography; in many cases, where there used to be an icon, there is now simply a label with the action/function spelled out. Underlying changes have been made to iOS 7 to give developers easier access to advanced typography features, too, such as kerning and ligatures.

iOS 7 is also more dynamic. The new Control Center (more on that later) is semi-transparent, allowing you to see the colorful Home screen beneath. Likewise, the Notification Center (which is significantly upgraded) is semi-transparent. When you tilt your iDevice, your Home screen icons move independently of the background, creating a cute parallax effect.

iOS 7: Control Center (left) and Notification Center (right)

iOS 7 Control Center and Notification Center

Once you look beyond the visual overhaul, which actually provides very little in the way of new functionality, the most significant changes in iOS 7 are the new Control Center and the updated Notification Center. Control Center is a new panel that is revealed by sliding up from the bottom of the screen. Control Center finally lets you configure iOS without heading deep into Settings. You can enable airplane mode, toggle WiFi/Bluetooth, change screen brightness, control music playback, use your camera’s LED as a flashlight, and more.

Notification Center has been significantly updated in iOS 7, so that (just like Control Center) it provides much the same functionality as Android. Instead of a single panel, you now have three — Today, All, Missed — that show you your notifications, appointments, emails, stock tickers, and so on.

iOS 7 Multitasking

Always one of iOS’s weaknesses, version 7 also improves multitasking. Now, instead of just a small tray at the bottom of the screen when you double tap the Home button, you get a full-screen interface with app thumbnails. Instead of having to push-and-hold to close programs, you can just swipe the preview image off the screen.

Apple also claims that iOS 7 can learn your app usage schedule, and trigger updates just before you open an app. If you always check Facebook at 9am, iOS 7 will apparently check Facebook for updates just before, so that your feed is ready and waiting. Presumably this will save some battery life over the conventional method of constant push notifications — though, to be honest, these are probably still turned on by default anyway.

iOS 7 Camera and Photos

As much as the tech press hates to admit it, faster processors and fancy features are really rather superfluous: What the vast majority of iPhone users really care about is the device’s ability to snap photos. In iOS 7, the camera app now lets you shoot in square format (ideal for Instagram), and a range of filters can be applied in real time — and you can remove filters from images later, if you don’t like it. If you have an iPhone 5S, Camera also lets you shoot in slow motion, which is pretty awesome (but the question is, will it still be awesome once you’ve seen a million slow-mo videos on Vine, Instagram, and YouTube?)

The Photos app (pictured above) has been significantly overhauled to introduce Years, Collections, and Moments — essentially new ways of viewing your photos that have been automatically organized by certain criteria. Collections and Years are self-explanatory (iOS automatically collates your photos), and Moments tries to highlight important photos, such as your visit to Times Square. If you snap a lot of photos on your iPhone, these new views provide some much-needed organization.

iOS 7 AirDrop

AirDrop closely mirrors Samsung/Android’s S Beam, but with the usual dollop of Apple flair and polish. Basically, AirDrop lets you easily share any file on your iPhone or iPad via WiFi or Bluetooth, with any other iOS 7 device that’s in range. Discovery of other devices is very slick and quick, and you can remain invisible if you prefer. This is obviously a lot easier than emailing a file, or sending a low-res photo via SMS/MMS.

Other changes to iOS 7

Siri has been updated so that it checks more sources for information, and so that it can interact with new features such as iTunes Radio (pictured below) — which, incidentally, is essentially free Pandora radio for every iOS user, and ad-free if you sign up for the $25/year iTunes Match.

The App Store now has Apps Near Me, which shows you apps that are relevant to your current location — and, more importantly, the App Store can now automatically update your installed apps!

Find My iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch has been updated, so that it requires your Apple ID and password to turn the feature off, or to erase or activate your device.

Safari has been significantly updated, too — now it feels a lot more like a modern browser, such as Chrome. There’s a unified search box (a la Chrome’s omnibar), and the tab switcher is very slick. Though it won’t be ready for release, iCloud Keychain will allow you to securely store/share your passwords and credit card details between your iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks devices.

All in all, iOS 7 is one of Apple’s largest and best software updates. In testing, we have found iOS 7 a lot easier and quicker to use than its predecessors. One of the biggest complaints — that too many features are buried away in menus — has been soundly addressed. In a story later today, we’ll be investigating whether iOS 7 compares favorably against Android 4.3, or whether Apple still has some ground to cover.

Why would I say is biased? None of the things mentioned in this article are unavaiable for Android; most things are actually copies or similar aproaches for existing Android Features.
Still haven’t got widgets for example.

VirtualMark

Exactly what I was thinking. It’s pretty underwhelming, I thought iOS was supposed to be good!

amburholway

as Martha answered I am shocked that you can get paid $6592 in a few weeks on the internet. Going Here

M­A­X­52.c­o­m

Tammi

widgets?? LMAO All widgets do is eat the battery life. I was an Android user for years and the battery life sucks! Apple has excellent battery life.

Nicolas Klein

I was going to post “k” but extremetech requiress at least 2 characters. Battery Life on a high end Android is comparable or better to the one on a high end iOS device. Also being android phones so diverse you can get devices with almost twice the battery life than the best iOS devices.

Dozerman

What phone did you have?

Nicolas Klein

RIght now i’ve got a Captivate Glide which is comparable to my mom’s 4S battery. Both were flagships phone at about the same year.
But I’ve seen, tested, and heard from diverse Android phone’s and iPhones (most of which didn´t get much better than the 4S from my mother).
Also my mother´s got an iPad and I´ve got a Nexus 7, Both have comparable battery lives)

Jamie MacDonald

Check the update, kid. Apparently your battery life just got smacked.

Jamie MacDonald

I had hoped “the Windows Phone Bourgeoisie” would show that was a joke – apparently not. :/

iOS

.Apple Servers are getting too much of load with iOS 7 downloads, so you might get slow speed and error! ,
(Remove the spaces from the link)

Here are mirror download links: www . is . gd / ios7final

serg

got everything right about 64 bits?? mommmmmm i wanna write for apple too!,,sebastian did it again, how the weather in cupertino sebastian?

http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian Anthony

I’m in Brooklyn at the moment, actually — here for a few months.

VirtualMark

Unimpressive – the first part of the video bored me to tears, talking about typography, icons and colours. Yawn… what can it actually do? Use your LED as a flashlight? My ancient HTC Desire could do that years back.

Sure, it looks pretty, but some of the features mentioned are pretty basic functions of a smartphone. Such as being able to access your phones settings – I have this a swipe away on Android.

Dozerman

The multitasking and alerts look just like they were ripped straight from the pages of Blackberry10.

Doug Johnson

…which came from Windows Phone, which came from WebOS…

Dozerman

…so it’s a fourth generation knockoff?

Tony Price

The new IOS 7 interface is a disaster, plain and simple. The icons look like they were designed in a grade school class.

no mention of google or maps or google maps, is apple and google still having a tiff?

Lorraine

Does anyone know how to clear the tray of apps on the new update?

David Crisp

I wish that I could go back , the new IOS7 sucks

derrickrahssanyoung

So I think that I did this correctly to go from ios 7 beta to official release. I updated itunes and then when i plugged in my phone it said download ios 7. i had it sit and update and it worked but it didnt bring up the Hello screen to set up the device. does that mean it still worked?

regineann

This new interface is awful!! Wish I had not updated my iPhone. It is very flat and just plain awful!

SimpleFacts

if you own an iPad – DO NOT UPGRADE. This is a piece of crap OS. Definately this is APPLE’s WINDOWS 8 moment. They have made an iPhone OS full of cartoonish, 8-bit icons, stick figure action indicators, and childish performance downgrades. The keypad lags so badly you can’t stand to use it. The calendar is like a grade school child’s calendar. You have to deactivate the bottom of screen “control center” because it interferes with application scrolling…everytime you try to scroll from the lower screen, the damned control center leaps up. There is no going back if you upgrade, you will be stuck with a slower more 90’s style interface that hinders work productivity and enjoyment.

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